Time recorder mechanism



y 25, 1942- E. G. STRECKFUSS 2,284,593

TIME RECQRDER MECHANISM Filed July 15, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. 1015 6: fin ficlrn/ss.

May 26, 1942. E. G. STRECKFUSS TIME RECORDER MECHANISM 2 SheetsSheet 2 Filed July 15. 1938 D m m m. d A w R m I Patented May 26, 1942 TIME RECORDER MECHANISM Elmer G. Streckfuss, Cincinnati, Ohio, asslgnor to The Cincinnati Time Recorder Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application July 15, 1938, Serial No. 219,438

3 Claims.

This invention relates to time recorders, and more particularly to time recorders for use in connection with workmens time cards in factories and the like.

In conventional time recorders of the class above described, there is provided a casing having an aperture for insertion of a card to be punched. There is a clock having a dial visible outside the casing and mechanism connecting said clock with a series of printing wheels which are adapted to imprint time indicia upon a card inserted in said aperture upon actuation of a hammer. Ordinarily a lever is provided extended outside the casing for actuating the hammer. The card tray shift may be accomplished manually or automatically for printing in and out I designations, and for changing the position of the tray for the various days of the week.

It is an object of my invention to provide mechanism for actuating the printing hammer electrically. Thus it is an object of my invention to do away with a hammer actuating handle extending outside the casing. It is another object of my invention to provide a mechanism whereby when a card is resting in the card tray a slight pressure on the top edge of the card will serve to cause actuation of the hammer to print time indicia thereon.

These and other objects of my invention which will be described in more detail hereinafter, or I which will be apparent to one skilled in the art upon reading these specifications, I accomplish by that certain construction and arrangement of parts of which I shall now describe an exemplary embodiment.

Reference is made to the accompanying drawings forming part hereof and in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a recorder according to my invention with a part of the casing broken away to show the inner construction.

Figure 2 is a perspective detailed view of one of the cooperating pivoted members for actuating the solenoid switch.

Figure 3 is a perspective view of the other cooperating element.

Figure 4 is a wiring diagram showing the connection of the switch member to the solenoid.

Figure 5 is a general perspective view of the interior of the time recorder with parts broken away and parts removed to show the essential cooperation of the various elements involved in my invention.

Figure 6 is a side elevation of the hammer mounting.

Briefly, in the practice of my invention, I provide a time recorder having a frame upon which the various operating elements of the machine are mounted. The machine is preferably provided with a casing III and a frame II. A clock, the face of which is indicated at I2, is provided for actuating the time printing wheels I3 and the card tray positioning cam I4. Preferably, a window I5 is provided through which indicia designating the day of the week are visible.

The various operating mechanisms for actuating the time printing wheels, the ribbon feed and the card tray positioning cam may be the type disclosed in my earlier Patents Nos. 2,086,952, 1,891,960, 1,800,414, 1,731,550; Lawton Patents Nos. 1,540,848 and 1,253,185; and Yates Patents Nos. 1,689,905 and 1,755,906.

The casing is provided with an aperture It in which the'card tray may move. Attached to the card tray is a plate I'Ia which serves to cover that part of the aperture I6 which is not occupied by the conventional slotted mouth piece IT. The portion I1 is provided with a pair of arms I8 extending forwardly and having holes through which pass the rod I9. The card tray generally consists of a more or less rectangular frame comprising the vertical channel shaped elements 20 and a lower connecting portion 2|. Hook members 22 bear upon the rod 23 to assist in supporting the card tray. Thus the card tray is mounted for transverse sliding movement upon the rods I9 and 23, by means of the arms I8 and the hook members 22. A rod 24 extends across between the members I8 near their extremities and is provided substantially centrally with a collar 25. The collar 25 is held in position by means of a set screw 25a, and the rod 24 is held in position by means of the screws 24a. A card tray actuating handle is indicated generally at 26 and comprises an element having ears turned up at 21, which ears are provided with holes through which the rod 24 passes. A small slot 28 is provided in the body of the handle mem ber 26 to engage with the lower portion of the collar 25. A spring element 29 fastened by rivets, or otherwise, to the handle portion 26, bears against the under side of the set screw 25a so as to urge the member 26 downwardly. The portion 26 extends through an aperture 30 in the front of the casing and the aperture 30 is provided with a series of valleys 3I in which the handle portion may rest. It will now be clear that the member 26 may be slightly elevated against the effort of the spring 29 and the tray may then be moved transversely to any desired position and held in said position by permitting the member 26 to enter one of the valleys 3|. In my preferred embodiment I provide, for example, a valley at the extreme left having morning in registrations; then a secondvalley for noon out" registrations; then a valley for "noon in registrations and another for night out" registrations. Two additional valleys may also be provided for overtime in and overtime out" registrations respectively. It will thus be clear that all registrations for a single day will appear on a horizontal line on the card. The card is shifted to a different vertical position in the tray for successive days by means of the cam l4, which in the present instance is a fourteen-day cam having two rises each of which carries the machine through a single week. This cam mechanism is fully described in my prior Patents Nos. 2,086,952, 1,891,960, 1,800,414, 1,731,550; and in the Lawton Patents Nos. 1,540,848 and 1,253,185, and Yates Patents Nos. 1,689,905 and 1,755,906. 7

The card abutment is indicated generally at 32 and is'provided with ledges 33 upon which the card may rest. The card abutment rides in the channels 20 mentioned above, and is provided with a pin 34, whereby it is located in various positions in the channels 20, as will be described.

'The actuating members which engage the abutment pin 34 are also the switch actuating mem-,

bers and are best seen in Figs. 2 and 3 individually, and in Fig. in assembled relation. The first member is the one shown in Fig. 2. This consists generally of two substantially parallel arms 35 and 36 provided with a connecting portion 31. A rod 38 bridges the arms 35 and 36 for a purpose which will be described hereinafter. Attached by screws, or otherwise, to the arm 36 is an element 39, carrying a contact point 40.

Leads 4| are provided for connecting the element 39 to the solenoid, as will be described hereinafter. The member 39 may be what is known in the trade as a micro-switch. ing screw 42 with a lock nut 43 is provided in the bridging portion 31, and a spring member 44 is attached to the member 31.

The second member is shown in Fig. 3 and comprises substantially parallel arms 45 and 46 which are connected together by means of a rod 41 and a bar 48. A lip 49 is provided on the member 46 which also carries a bracket 41 provided with an adjusting screw 50 and lock nut 5|.

The assembly of these elements is as follows:

Both the elements shown in Figs. 2 and 3 are pivoted to a portion 52 of the frame by means of a pin 53 passing through the holes 54 in each of the members. The pin 38, described above, rides upon the cam l4, and the arms 45 and 46 of the members shown in Fig. 3 are provided with enlarged openings 55 to permit relative movement between the two members to a slight degree. The rod 38 traverses these holes. The other end of the spring element 44 is hooked around the rod or pin 41 on the second member, so as to hold the second member in elevated position relative to the first member. lnis position may be adjusted by means of the set screw 42, which bears upon the lip 49 of the second member, and in this position the screw 50 is adjusted so that its point is slightly spaced from the contact 40. It will be noted from a consideration of Fig. 5 that the bar 48 supports the card abutment by means of the pin 34, and that the card abutment will be so supported regard- The adjustless of the transverse position of the tray by virtue of the length of the member 48. An extension 56 of the arm 54 is provided with a hole 51 in which one end of a spring 58 is fastened. The other end of the spring is fastened to a pin 59 mounted in the frame element 52. The spring 58 serves merely to break the fall of the assembly when the end of the rise of the cam I4 is reached. It will now be seen that the card abutment 32 is held in a position which is determined by the angular position of the cam l4, but that a slight downward movement of the card abutment in any position is permitted by virtue of the connection between the members shown in Figs. 2 and 3. Thus, when a card is dropped into the card tray and comes to rest upon the abutment 32, it is supported in proper position for the printing of indicia in the appropriate position on the card. A slight downward pressure on the top edge of the card will cause a slight relative movement of the. member shown in Fig. 3 relative to the member of Fig. 2, so that the contacts 50 and 40 will touch.

The hammer is generally indicated at 60, and is mounted upon the rod 23 as shown in detail in Fig. 6. The shank of the hammer indicated at 6| is pivotally mounted at 62, in upstanding ears 63 of the clamping member 64. The member 64 is provided with an aperture 65 and is split, as indicated at 66, and is provided with a bolt 61, threaded into the upper portion of the member 64 so that the member 64 may be tightly clamped upon the rod 23. A hairpin shaped spring element 68 rests in a recess at the top of the member 64 and is provided with an enlarged head portion 69, which rests in an enlargement of the recess indicated generally at 10. By virtue of this construction, when the hammer is actuated by a turning of the rod 23 in a clockwise direction, as seen in Fig. 6, the hammer will be flipped forward against the effort of the spring 68 so as to hit through the aperture in the card guide, indicatedat 1|, against the time printing wheels l3, whereupon the spring member 68 will cause the hammer to fly backward a slight degree.

A solenoid for actuating the hammer is indicated generally at 12 and is provided with a plunger 13. Leads 4| connect the solenoid to the micro-switch as above described, so that upon contact of the members 50 and 40, the plunger 13 of the solenoid will be drawn downwardly. This downward movement is translated into a rocking motion of the rod 23 by means of the linkage 14 and 15, the member 15 being fixed to the rod 23. A member 16 is also fixed to the rod 23 and is connected by means of a spring 11 to a pin fixed in a part of the frame said pin being indicated at 18, so that the rod 23 is urged in a counterclockwise direction, as seen in Fig. 5. A pin 19 provides a limiting stop for this counterclockwise movement of the rod 23. An extension of the lever 15 is connected by links 8| and 82 to the rod 83, which serves to actuate various other portions of the' recorder as described in my previous patents.

It will be understood that numerous modifications may be made in various details of the machine and that my invention may be applied to various kinds of time recording apparatuses without limitation. I have shown some other parts of the machine merely to show the cooperation of the mechanism of my invention with the remainder of a conventional recorder; and it is to be understood that I do not intend to limit myself in any way except as pointed out in the claims which follow.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a time recorder having a movable card tray, a card abutment movable vertically with reference to the tray, said abutment presenting a horizontal support to a card inserted in the tray and being so mounted as to move with said horizontal support always in a horizontal position, a member movable in accordance with time for moving said abutment, a lever engaged by the last named member, and serving as a movable support for said card abutment, the said lever comprising two members resiliently held together and having a slight relative movement in response to vertical pressure on said abutment; an electric switch associated with said two members, and arranged to be placed into operation upon said slight relative movement, said switch being connected as part of the circuit of a printing device.

2. In a time recorder having a movable card tray, 9. card abutment movable vertically with reference to the tray, said abutment presenting a horizontal support to a card inserted in the tray and being so mounted as to move with said horizontal support always in a horizontal position, a member movable in accordance with time for moving said abutment, a lever engaged by the last named member, and serving as a movable support for said card abutment, the said lever comprising two members resiliently held together and having a slight relative movement in response to vertical pressure on said abutment; means for adjusting the range of relative movement between said two members; an

electric switch associated with said two members, and arranged to be placed into operation upon said slight relative movement, said switch being connected as part of the circuit of a printing device.

3. In a time recorder having a movable card tray, a card abutment movable with reference to the. tray, said abutment presenting'a horizontal support to a card inserted in the tray and being so mounted as to move with. said horizontal support always in a horizontal position, a member movable in accordance with time, and means engaged by the last named member, and serving also as a movable support for said card abutment, the said means comprising two members resiliently held together and having a slight relative movement; an electric switch forming a part of said means, and arrangedto be placed into operation upon said slight relative movement, and a printing circuit supplied with energy through said switch, whereby a slight pressure of a card on the abutment will result in a printing upon said card, the aforesaid means that is engaged by the time movable member and which supports the card abutment, being constructed as follows: the two aforesaid members thereof having a common'pivot, one of the members being supported by the time movable member and the other of said members having a cross piece on which the card abutment rests; the switch being mounted on one of the members and the other of the two members having means to engage the switch and the resilient holding of the members together being effected by a spring which enforces a contact of the two members between their common pivot and the card abutment supporting cross piece.

EIMER G. STRECKE'USS. 

